Bill Belichick has a brand new job, but he apparently hasn’t moved on from his old one.
While his North Carolina team got off to a horrendous start with a lopsided season-opening loss to TCU, the Tar Heels made more unlucky headlines Thursday, when it was reported that Belichick has banned scouts from his old team, the Recent England Patriots, from attending practices at UNC.
The news, first reported by John Middlekauff on his “3 and Out” podcast, got here with others noting that NFL scouts have had a difficult time with the ability to scout North Carolina’s players since Belichick got the job.
It’s led some to wonder, naturally, if the move will in actual fact make it harder for Belichick and the team’s general manager, Mike Lombardi, to get players to Chapel Hill — since they could consider it damaging to their potential draft stock.
And as Middlekauff noted, “Should you’re a scout for the Recent England Patriots, you should not allowed on the University of North Carolina — which is funny, but form of embarrassing.”
Middlekauff, also a former NFL scout, said it was clear what Belichick’s intentions were: “People get fired. But to ban the Recent England Patriots is like an ‘F-you’ to Robert Kraft.”
But perhaps it’s not as big a deal because it might be, since in the course of the home loss to TCU, ESPN’s Pete Thamel said that almost all NFL talent evaluators who attended the sport were primarily there to see TCU players.
It’s the most recent blemish for Belichick, who also drew criticism for handing out blank depth charts prior to the TCU game, listing only positions and no players.
Belichick didn’t coach last season after not being brought back by the Patriots and, when he was unable to land one other NFL job, went the faculty route, which has been more noteworthy for off-field distractions than anything good on the sector.
